Ice Cream Social Birthday Party Decorations Made with Cricut Explore Air

You know when you go on Pinterest, and you see those beautiful party decoration pins, and then you try to do it at home and it looks like you let your 6-year-old loose with a pair of scissors? Yep, that’s pretty much the story of my life.

I love craft projects, and I love throwing parties, but when I try to combine the two, something just doesn’t work out. I’ve never really been able to get the results I envision, and it drives me crazy.

That’s why I literally jumped with joy when I got the chance to try out the brand new Cricut Explore Air.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the amazingness that is the Cricut (pronounced “cricket”), it’s a machine that can cut ANYTHING, aka the most perfect crafting assistant of all time. I’ve heard people rave about it (and drooled with jealousy), but the Cricut Explore Air was even better than I imagined.

Michaels and Cricut were kind enough to invite me into the store to get an up close tutorial from crafting expert Lia Griffith, an incredible designer who has created tons of templates for projects you can do at home.

Lia asked ahead of time what craft project she could help me plan, and we decided on decorations for an ice cream social birthday party. I walked in without any clue what to expect, and what I saw was in the pic above.

Cue my jaw dropping. Can you believe all the things she made with the Cricut? I was in Pinterest heaven.

Lia started taking me through each project (you can find all the templates here), and I was shocked by how easy each one was. I’m definitely an amateur crafter, so it was nice to see that these didn’t require Martha Stewart-level skills to accomplish.

Ice Cream Cone Holders

Decorative Banner

Topping and Sauce Labels

Most of the decorations were made using cardstock and the “cut” feature on the Cricut. Lia (who is officially my new favorite person) walked me through how to use the adhesive Cricut mat to place the cut material, and then choose the template I wanted. After that, it was a simple as pushing a button. I’m not even kidding, the cone wraps took about 5 minutes, start to finish. Another awesome thing about the Cricut Explore Air is that it’s completely wireless, which meant I could use it from any computer, and even my iPad, without the hassle of finding right cords and doing a whole install/set-up.

Puppy Straw Toppers

These straw toppers are my personal favorite, because they are just so cute!

Iron-On Ice Cream Apron

The Cricut doesn’t just cut paper, it can also make vinyl adhesives, iron-on transfers, and even cut fabric. Lia showed me how to make this apron, for the ice cream social hostess with the mostess. It was just as easy as the paper projects, I just had to remember to reverse the pattern before hitting “cut.”

By the end of the day, I was bursting with ideas for projects of my own. Not only does Cricut’s Design Space have hundreds of templates to help you get crafting inspiration, but you can also import your own images for customized crafts.

I decided to recreate Lia’s topping labels at home and it went flawlessly. No Pinterest fails here!

Next, I decided to try something of my own and made these adorable bottle cap magnets. I used the Cricut Explore Air to cut out circles that would exactly fit inside, and then just glued a magnet to the back:

Calling all crafting fans: Michaels is offering an exclusive price and bundle packed with projects and accessories to help you get started – you get 20 Lia Griffith projects, an extra 12” x 12” cutting mat and 1 month Design Space subscription.